Roofing systems often include water impermeable sheets of polymeric materials installed over a roof deck. The polymeric sheets, or membranes, may be formed from a variety of known polymeric materials. These membranes can be thermoformable or thermoset. For example, thermoset membranes may be prepared from ethylene-propylene-diene rubber (EPDM).
Roofing membranes are typically installed in an overlapping arrangement, with lap seams formed between adjacent membranes to maintain the integrity of the roofing system and prevent water infiltration. A variety of mechanisms and techniques are known in the art for securing these membranes to the roof surface. The same or similar membranes are also useful in other environments, such as, for example, geomembranes used in pond lining and other landscaping applications.
Known techniques and methods for forming cured membranes, including EPDM membranes, have proven to be largely successful. Advancements in manufacturing processes in recent years have led to improved product quality and manufacturing efficiencies, which has led to an overall growth in the popularity of cured roofing membranes. However, further improvements of the methods and techniques for producing EPDM sheets are desired. One significant deficiency of prior art methods for manufacturing the EPDM sheets are the batch processes employed. The vulcanizable rubber composition is often mixed in one or more batch processes that are both time consuming and labor intensive. In addition, curing of the EPDM sheets is often performed in batch processes by curing rolls of the EPDM sheet in curing ovens. These batch processes can slow production and increase costs.
Thus, there is a need for an improved system and method for manufacturing cured membranes that alleviates one or more of the deficiencies of the prior art and generally improves the art.